James Bovard: The Reality of Feel-Good Government

The government-supported service organization AmeriCorps got a boost
from President Obama in April, when he announced a new program to
"connect more professional scientists and engineers to young students
who might follow in their footsteps." According to a news release, the
goal is to place hundreds of AmeriCorps members in nonprofits across the
country to mobilize professionals in science, technology, engineering
and math "to inspire young people to excel in STEM education."

A lofty goal, to be sure, but not one
AmeriCorps is likely to serve well. Judging by the program's track
record over two decades—or distinct lack of a track record in several
cases—taxpayers have better ways to spend some $446 million a year.

A sort of domestic Peace Corps,
AmeriCorps was created in 1993 to place adult Americans in community
service with nonprofit and public agencies, especially in environmental
protection, health, education and public safety. President Clinton
declared that AmeriCorps is "living proof" that "if we hold hands and
believe we're going into the future together, we can change anything we
want to change." President George W. Bush was a big supporter, too.

But the halo on AmeriCorps exists
primarily because few people have examined what the corps and its
members are really up to. The grandiose achievements of AmeriCorps have
always been a statistical illusion, full of impressive-looking numbers
of people and causes served, and yet—as the Government Accountability
Office has pointed out—often missing evidence of real accomplishment.

Consider the following recent activities:

• In April, AmeriCorps recruits in
Tuscumbia, Mo., released 70 blue balloons outside the county courthouse
to draw attention to the plight of abused children.

• In March, Providence, R.I.,
AmeriCorps members at the Institute for the Study and Practice of
Nonviolence hosted a hip hop/poetry competition.

• Members of a Nevada AmeriCorps
program busy themselves these days by encouraging local residents to
drink tap water and watch out for bears ("bear awareness").

• AmeriCorps members in Austin, Texas,
hosted a trivia night in April at a local bar called Cheer Up Charlie's
to whip up enthusiasm for public service.

Puppet shows that hector children
about recycling are a favorite AmeriCorps pastime. Recruits to the corps
also serve with Playworks—a national nonprofit that brings "safe and
inclusive play to all students" in elementary schools and features
"having grown-ups play alongside of children" to add "an important
element of silliness and shared humanity."

Associated Press

First lady Michelle Obama joined AmeriCorps members and others building a school playground in Washington, D.C., in June 2011.

In the
social-service category, some AmeriCorps volunteers serve with the
WithinReach program in Washington state, which says on its website that
part of the service of AmeriCorps at WithinReach is to "reach out to
low-income populations and help them access public benefits." Efforts
include guiding Washington residents to food aid, Medicaid and subsidies
for their utility bills. The Columbus, Ohio, HarvestCorps program
specifically requires each AmeriCorps member to sign up at least 75
households for food stamps. Hunger Free Colorado boasts that its
AmeriCorps recruits are "vital" to "increase participation" in food
stamps and "to ensure [recipients] do not fall off of the programs once
enrolled." AmeriCorps also bankrolls FoodCorps in locales known as
"high-obesity communities" to plant school gardens and urge people to
reform their diets.

In addition to serving with
organizations such as Planned Parenthood and Habitat for Humanity, many
AmeriCorps recruits also serve on the staffs of advocacy groups. The
Presbyterian Hunger Project has eight AmeriCorps members for "supporting
community-driven solutions to injustices in the food system, locally
and nationally."

During the Clinton era, scandals
erupted after AmeriCorps bankrolled the left-wing community-organizing
group Acorn and projects that engaged in blatant political campaigning.
Federal law bans using tax dollars for advocacy. In 2011, a report
prepared by auditors in the office of the inspector general with
oversight of AmeriCorps criticized its management for policies that
"leave no meaningful recourse against a sponsor that misuses
[AmeriCorps] personnel."

According to President Obama,
AmeriCorps embodies "the best of our nation's history, diversity and
commitment to service." But Nicole Patterson, winner of a Congressional
Bronze Medal for community service, was not impressed with her
AmeriCorps experience. Venting online in 2011, she wrote: "I spent six
weeks playing Scrabble and kickball for America. I spent another two
months sitting in a tool shed for America. We annoyed more people than
we ever helped."

A 2011 audit found that AmeriCorps
members in a large program run by the New York City Mayor's Office "were
told to work from home with no substantial assignments."

For most of Mr. Obama's first term and
until last year, AmeriCorps went unsupervised by a permanent inspector
general at its oversight agency, the Corporation for National and
Community Service. In June 2009, the administration fired IG Gerald
Walpin after Mr. Walpin refused to back down from a report condemning a
prominent Obama supporter, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson,
for misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars in AmeriCorps grants for
his St. HOPE Academy. Mr. Walpin also stirred hostility with a report
showing that the AmeriCorps role in one of its largest programs—the
Teaching Fellows program at the City University of New York—failed to
produce any positive results.

AmeriCorps notes that "more than
800,000 AmeriCorps members have contributed more than 1 billion hours in
service across America" since 1994. The organization currently counts
some 80,000 members, who receive an annual stipend or education award or
both—worth more than $15,000—and free health care.

No doubt they have done much good over
the years. This spring alone, AmeriCorps members helped build levees in
the flooded Midwest and lent a hand in Oklahoma after a rash of
devastating tornadoes struck. It must be said, though, that such work
after a natural disaster would be performed in any case.

When it comes to measuring results,
however, the program has always relied on Soviet-style accounting—adding
up labor inputs and proclaiming victory. The Government Accountability
Office criticized AmeriCorps in 2000 for this reason and rapped the
organization again in 2010 for using performance measures that "do not
demonstrate results" and are "poorly aligned" with stated goals. The GAO
warned that the self-reported data from grant recipients was unverified
and unreliable.

The current inspector general of the
Corporation for National and Community Service, Deborah Jeffrey, warned
in a report in April that AmeriCorps' analyses of its wrongful payments
problem routinely ignore "how grantees actually spend the funds." It is
not clear how much more we will learn, though. In 2012, Congress slashed
the annual budget for the inspector general's office in half, to $4
million, forcing the layoff of half of its 10 auditors and most of the
eight investigators, Ms. Jeffrey says.

Politicians of both parties have
routinely waved through support for AmeriCorps. Who wants to come out
against a group that so easily lends itself to feel-good oratory? What's
often forgotten is that when the government runs a "volunteer"
organization, Washington politicians are volunteering taxpayer dollars.

Mr. Bovard is the author, most recently, of the e-book memoir "Public Policy Hooligan."